Prevent Rodents (squirrels, chipmunks, birds) from getting into garden

[kmforsyt]

We have a VERY large garden. It's 30 feet by 80 feet. It has 3 rows of blueberries, 4 rows of raspberries, and a mix of tomatoes, etc.
Last year we had rodents take all of our crops.
Before I invest in a solution, I wanted to get some feedback around the best options
1) food, chemicals to prevent rodents
2) a light device or noise device to prevent rodents
3) a fence (metal or wood posts). I will cover it with chicken wire (small holes) to prevent rodents from entering.
4) cover the entire area with netting.

Netting will work, but it's very time consuming and it's hard to access the garden.
I'd rather do a fence, but that will cost hundreds of dollars. We would still need to put netting above the blueberries for birds. Thx!

 

[Tetters]

My commiserations to you having this awful problem. My own garden is even bigger than yours here in England, and I`ve been doing my best to fill three new beds (a LOT of digging) with tough perennials. Have lost loads of plants over the last couple of years to rabbits and game birds (partridges and pheasants) what they don`t eat, they scratch out of the ground - it wouldn`t be so bad if they scratched out the weeds, but NO - they leave those alone. We are flying a bird of prey to try and put them off, have made a scarecrow (called Wilson) to no avail, and placed a few mock cats with shining scary eyes - no good at all.
The latest idea is to make a little cage out of chicken wire for each plant , or set of plants to keep the rotten pests at bay......
I`m not all that hopeful. If you do come up with a brainwave do please let me know.

Welcome to the forums anyway